Weather peak again and no sign of Manny

 Weather has been in the high 80's for the past week for at least three days in  a row so we close up around noon and last night couldn't open up until after dark. 

Beautiful blue skies make for great pictures behind the green and salmon red fall colors. At least for San Diego. I had light blocking eye covers on due to having an eye appointment earlier in the day and couldn't tell if the blue was that intense or not. Looks like it was that intense.

It was a pepper fail year it seems. I decided to pull out the poblano and fish peppers. Neither of them had fruit that was getting to size and judging by the roots on the fish pepper, that's why. As soon as it cools down a bit more I'll be cutting down the tomatoes and pulling those. Although, I'm tempted to leave the plant on the left in because it is putting out some new growth at the base. I remember what happened last time I let a tomato winter over though.

 So this is the way I had to water the other day, filling up the bucket and dumping it in the west and raised bed. The raised bed was bone dry down about an inch even after watering with the hose for five minutes.

 

 That is dry soil that I discovered as I was trying to mix things up after water bucket treatment. Then, yesterday when I went out to check on things and wanted to water...... another two feet cut off the hose. It doesn't make a difference to her because all her plants are within reach of the hose, even Layla can use it. But I'm left high and dry.

I have enough money to spare for a $20 pocket hose that no one else will use and an extra $10 for a sprayer since my other one is cracked and leaks. I'll just unhook the other hose and put mine on, then depressurize and tuck it in the electrical closet in the litter bucket I'm not using. 

Getting more soil is the next step. I do have the compost and I'm sure that will work fine in the ground beds but there's not nearly enough for putting in the raised bed. IF I have a spare 20 after the rest of the bills are paid, I'll go get a bag or two.

 I haven't seen Manny for six days. I am only anxious about him because I need to cut down the plants and clear out that west bed. I only cut the very tallest and lanky branches off and he usually hangs around knee level where there's more cover. I played it safe though and tossed the cuttings behind the bed just in case. Will keep checking and wish there was a way of using UV light or something at night to find him. I decided to put him in the trumpet vines  because those don't get bothered, have plenty of hiding areas and hopefully enough ants and other bugs for him to eat. better camouflage too.

Still no progress on blogger upgrade or even a message from them. Kind of figured that but was hopeful.

Might as well try and post

 The weather is warming up, multiple days in a row of high 80's and low 90's. With a few degrees of difference daytime temps will be that way for this whole week. Luckily the nighttime dips down by about 40 degrees so the heat of the day isn't as oppressive when we button up in the morning.

Okay so roundabout way of getting photos paired up is ridiculous. I just tried to do a reverse of what I've done before and it worked. Still no word from blogger about what happened. Harsh afternoon sun and the rambling, dying tomatillos in the evening. The blue catch bucket broke finally so nothing to water the far beds with other than hose spray from six feet.

And formatting all gone. Can barely see him but Manny is still hanging around, the left picture is from day before yesterday. I found him again last night and scouted the area for the best place to move him. Top contenders are the jade bush at the entrance to the garden or the trumpet vines on the pergola. Another contender is the asparagus fern that's in bloom and sure to bring plenty of meals on wings for him.

Something snacked on a tomato, most likely a bird from the damage. The two vines are basically done for the season anyway, one of the branches bent over again so it's time to pull them as soon as the remaining fruit are done.

The peppers are still doing okay, the poblano has two more fruit coming in but the oldest one still hasn't grown much, a third of the size it should be. The two fish peppers likely won't be getting very big anymore either and the onions are the only thing left that still need to stay in the ground and grow.

I did see that there are onions and cilantro coming up in the south bed though. I have to water very very carefully so as not to smash the onions as they come up. Which I would need a mister for and don't have. No new hose as yet, so finger on the hose is all I can do. Did I mention how I hate it when people ignore my advice? Might have to go get the hose from downstairs again and slog it over there to water.

The entirety of my tomatillo harvest so far. Nothing even as big as a ping pong ball but I'm only picking them when they come off easily from the plant and are dark purple. I am dreading what that salsa is going to look like but according to a lot of the photos, they keep the purple color. Will post photos when that happens. 

That's all for today, not much else to do or say, sitting inside due to the heat and won't get out until sunset to check on things.

First of October and weather is miserable.

 93 today and close to that tomorrow. What is it with the weather? Is it my location? Global warming most likely, it was never this warm that I remember when I was little. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I was very busy on Sunday and never got out in the evening to water. I didn't get a chance to go out and water until the evening on Monday...that was close to disastrous for the garden. Everything was wilted and of course, using a shortened hose it was hard to really water well but I used to drip bucket and the hose to get the seed bed and the raised bed enough water.

Everything looked good this morning thankfully the tomatillos are suffering but a large one and small one came off in my hand as I looked at them! So it's a start and I may not get a full crop out of them but this was a learning experience with a new veggie. Lesson learned, will plant green ones next year all in the west bed. Hopefully.

There was a red bougainvillea in that corner. The one that the birds liked to perch in, Rocky would scamper up the leaning trunk to try and catch them or lizards. Well apparently someone in charge thought it was dying and needed to be taken down. Good thing is, they left a stump and it will be a bush soon enough. The parrot flock decided to stop by for the night two days ago, I think they enjoy having open branches at the tops of the trees thanks to the caterpillars. They usually 'prune' leaves off branches in the sycamores when they roost for the night. There's at least a dozen or more just in that tree and double that in the other trees. Wonderful raucous sounds.

Not much else going on so far, the air is rather hazy and stuffy but once the sun goes down the temperature plummets so we get great relief at night. Going to be busy shopping and stuff this week back to sort of usual next week.

 

A little change up and Manny sighting

 The weather is still good, warm daytime chilly at night but according to the weather app, we're expecting high 80's and low 90's for a couple of days next week. Stupid Mother Nature and her hot flashes.

I finally decided to pull up the Jalapeño. It was looking yellowed and the last few peppers were turning color despite being small. I've never really had good success with that pepper, prolific but never good size one. I also pulled that potato plant and it did have a few swollen spots on the roots but I wasn't going to leave it in place due to it getting brown tips.

Not sure where those roots are coming from, they go deep and am hoping they aren't from anything growing up from the ground. I used the cultivator and raked that area out really well and moved the soil around a bit more. 

Fish peppers and the lone poblano looking good so far. I am realizing that 90% of the issue with low production in that bed is low soil and lack of proper fertilizer. Hoping next month I can haul in some more soil and really pile it up to the top. I'm treating it like a pot where you have to leave watering room and that's incorrect. From what I've seen other gardeners do is they pile it up to the top and mound in the middle then mulch with straw to keep the soil in place. I need about 6 bags to do that, $60 I do not have.

Day before yesterday, I smoothed the south bed really well, ready and waiting for planting seeds, critter deterrent has been working and haven't smelled skunk in a while. The other picture is what I assume is scat of some sort. Possibly rat or mouse, maybe a quarter inch long just out in the open. Not even sure if it might be lizard but that's a first in the garden.

Seed planting. I had to shift that piece of wood in a little because it was outside the ring of fencing that was being covered by soil and the cultivator was getting caught on it. Sprinkled cilantro lightly along the back and the green onions in a line in the front. Cilantro is easy to see when planting since it's a tan little ball but the onions, had to trust my fingers on how many were being released. Will see what happens, soil was moist enough but I watered today just because it was looking dry on the surface. It will be slow germination due to the bed not getting direct sun now. 

Tomatillos are coming along and turning purple but the outer skin is far from drying up so resisting the urge to pick them at this stage. I even detected a little stickiness on the big one so they're getting close.

And finally caught sight of Manny. I need to keep track of him for when I have to pull up those bushes. I thought about doing it today but need to find a suitable new place for him to catch lots of food. If I could have put him on the tree branches when the caterpillars were out more, he would have feasted every day!

I had a brief thought about somehow making walls for the two ground beds and since there's gopher proofing already in I don't have to worry about continuing it up another foot or two. Then there's the logistics of what to use and the amount of soil needed. So that's a long term plan that if I knew we were going to be here 'long term' and had the money it would be implemented already. As it is, it's not my property and have no money to use it right now. Still working on that.

 

 

Great expectations and more invasion

 Not much in the way of noteworthy pictures so will just get down to it. It's warm this week but again it cools off when the sun goes down so we can open up completely and have a pleasant night temperature. Night before last I smelled skunk...really bad and knew there would be tracks in the garden.

I didn't pull the fencing forward as much as I should have, luckily nothing was damaged and had no plants growing there. I am doing it to try and discourage them when they do come around, and they have not gotten into the raised bed or the crate of soil.

The first pictures of the south bed, the log wasn't there and they just slipped right underneath and rooted around in the dirt. I then put that piece of wood and attached the plastic fencing on the ends. That was the ticket and I used two logs for either side of the west bed also turning it over so it was like a tunnel rather than inverted and crumpled.

Peppers are still doing well and the tomatoes, despite being ripe looking wouldn't pull off easily so will check them again tonight. I still have a number of logs and bark in the raised bed just in case.

Oopsie... I may have forgotten to turn the water off completely last night. When I went to check on things tonight it was on and I didn't even use the hose. It was Layla because her pots were watered. Grrumble.

So when I went out today I brought the lettuce, romaine and cilantro seeds with me with a mind to plant in the south bed. Well...... I took the deterrent off and ended up working in that entire bucket of compost and watering it in well. 

I was only going to use half of the bucket but as I worked it in I realized it really needed all that compost and a bit more. After working the last of it in and then watering, it took the water just fine but was still very gritty and sandy and clay but I think even that small amount is better than it was before.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything buttoned down for the night and you can see how clumpy the soil is after I mixed in the compost and wet soil. Going to let it sit for a few days to let it dry a bit then use the cultivator again and smooth it all out before putting seeds in.

The tomatillos are starting to look burned on the tips like the other ones were a few weeks ago with the sun beating down on the wall. I am now thinking reflected heat is not a good thing for these plants. I may be giving the seeds to someone else because I don't have the room for the production needed.

But there are a handful of the fruit that is splitting the husks already and turning purple! A lot of them are still small but at least four or five that were splitting. These are definitely smaller than the standard green ones. Yay I have fruit but man if I had more room I'd dedicate a good half dozen bushes to growing the green ones. Will see how this progresses.

Waiting in the wings is Romaine, mixed lettuces, green onions and cilantro. I think I'll only be growing onions in the south bed. They seem to do good for Layla in just plain dirt so will hold off the lettuces and cilantro for the raised bed and am still considering at least a few potato plants for the crate and maybe the raised bed. Have to put them on the West side as that's a bit drier than the East side that gets a bit more shade in the winter. 

The potato slip I planted in the corner is turning color at the tips which I seem to recall meant that it was staying too wet. I may just pull that one because it is going to hold that corner forever at this rate without the benefit of potatoes and I have some languishing spuds in the cupboard right now that will be perfect for planting.

Did I mention I'm an impatient gardener?